New Software Helps Agents Book Cruises In 3-5 Minutes

A system that may make cruise bookings much quicker for travel agents was previewed on Wednesday in Fort Lauderdale.

Sabre CruiseDirector will let agents research and book a cruise cabin in three to five minutes, a fraction of the current time, said Eric Speck, vice president of product marketing for Sabre.

Sabre is the information technology unit of American Airlines' parent, AMR Corp. It is one of two big names in computerized travel reservations, along with Apollo, run by United Airlines.

Starting on Wednesday, Sabre Cruise-Director will be available to 4,200 travel agencies around the nation that have Sabre with Windows, the popular computer operating system.

Windows is needed to run Sabre CruiseDirector.

"This technology is really the latest technology," said Denny Fuerst, vice president of customer relations for Princess Cruises, the launch customer for CruiseDirector.

"The information is absolutely current. The travel agent is looking at the same information as a Princess reservations worker," Fuerst said.

With CruiseDirector, agents will save lots of time on paperwork, said Rick James, Princess vice president for marketing. The most competitive agencies will want it, he said, because it leaves more time to sell travel and earn commissions.

CruiseDirectors lets agents quickly search for cruises by date, itinerary and ship. It permits real time reservations booking. It shows up to the minute discounts for various cabin categories. By 1996, a separate CD-ROM will show cabin layouts and deck plans.

Later this year, Kloster Cruise Ltd. is expected to become the second cruise firm to use CruiseDirector.